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ZANKLE
later Messene (Messina) Sicily.

A city at the NE tip of Sicily on the Straits ca. 10 km
to the S of Cape Pelorus in the narrow alluvial plain
between the foothills of the Peloritan mountains and the
small sickle-shaped peninsula which creates a natural
harbor.

At first it was a nest of Chalcidian pirates within Sikel
territory. Toward the middle of the 8th c. B.C. the site
received, with the name of Zankle, a colony of Greeks
from Euboia and from Italic Kyme (Thuc. 6:4, 5-6).
Its formidable position in control of the trade routes
across the straits accounts for the city's prosperity
throughout the archaic period. It participated in the
foundation of Rhegion (Strab. 6.257); on the Tyrrhenian
side of the Peloritan mountains it occupied Mylai; it
sent sub-colonies to Matauros (against Etruscan claims
on the Lower Tyrrhenian Sea) and in 649-648 B.C. to
Himera (as a bulwark against Carthaginian expansion on
the W Tyrrhenian). From the beginning of the 5th c.
B.C. Zankle's supremacy shifted to Rhegion; with Anaxilas' help some Ionians from Samos occupied the city,
but shortly afterwards, in 486 B.C., Anaxilas settled a
group of Messenians at the site, changing its name to
Messene (Thuc. 6.4.5-6). From then onward, because
of its geographical position, the city remained spectator
rather than actor during historical events. After the
Mamertine occupation in 284 B.C., which changed its
name to Mamertina (Diod. 21:18), the city carried out
an expansionist policy against the Sikels, at times with
help from the Phoenicians, who finally invaded it; hence,
in 264-263 B.C., Messene's request for help from Rome
and the outbreak of the first Punic war. In the 1st c. B.C.
it was still civitas foederata (Cic. Verr. 3.6.13). During
the Imperial period it must have been one of the many
maritime cities for commercial transit, since its existence
was conditioned by the harbor activities. It was occupied by the Muslims in 843.

The modern city lies over the ancient. The borders of the
Classical town, however, seem marked to the N by the
Roman necropolis (1st-3d c. A.D.), to the SW by the large
arc of the Hellenistic-Roman cemetery in the area of the
Orti della Maddalena; recent reports confirm that the Hellenistic site also included the hill of Montepiselli (acropolis?) to the W. In this whole area very few monumental remains have been recorded: traces of Roman houses and
various finds between the Duomo and Via Garibaldi; a
thick wall (Mamertine fortification) in two sections of Via
Università and Via Garibaldi. A grandiose chamber
tomb with dromos, walls and funerary beds (klinai) perfectly preserved, has been uncovered in Piazza Avignone. It is datable between the end of the 4th c. and the 3d c. B.C., and is the first monument of Classical
Messina to be preserved and opened to visitors. Almost
nothing was known of Zankle's topography except for
the archaic sanctuary (8th-7th c. B.C.) located at the tip
of the harbor sickle. Excavation has identified a section
of the archaic habitation area, at the point where the
sickle-shaped zone joins the mainland (present city
block 224-Hotel Reale); these are remains of houses
separated by means of stenochoria, which follow an
orthogonal system and are built with river stones (two
to the thickness of the wall) set on virgin soil, in a layer
rich with proto-Corinthian pottery (a section of the excavation has been reconstructed in an area adjacent to the original find spot, within the garden of the Villa Comunale on Via T. Cannizarro). The finds are housed in
the National Museum of Messina.